Tale of the Dragonlady
by Lilitha-Star
Summary: Kain has met a dark woman. She is ancient but what is she really...? Kain seems determined to crack the enigma that is this woman. What will happen beacuse of this? Will update with a review
1. Prologue

Author's notes: Ok re-writing this story lots!

Prologue

She was an enigma to me, always was. Now she's left there's a hole that there never was before. She frustrated me and yet at the same time she was ever so clear cut. We thought we knew what she was, and then she surprised us. Always surprising us at every turn. Did nothing she didn't want to. Always cool to the point of annoying.

Everyone misses her now she's gone. Time has passed, and yet no one seems to mark its passing as they did so diligently before. Time is an endless eternity that becomes increasingly more boring as you go along. But she made time interesting. She always appeared when we least expected it; she kept us on our feet. I remember her well.

Whatever she is, wherever she is, be she dead or alive, she is gone. Time is now passing slowly, dragging, with no more games to play, no more whispers of silent fears amongst the fledglings. Yes I miss her, so would you if you had met her.

The fault is mine. We fought over her, and she left. She left as summer leaves; it was bound to happen at some point, when we no longer needed her. And yet unlike summer she never came back again.

How many times have we listened for her? Looked for her? In vain. She is gone and never coming back. Listen to me you know nothing of her, let me enlighten you. She was the single most capable woman of confusing me within a few moments. And yet for all that we were friends, and good ones at that. She vowed to protect me. And protect me she did, though from more than I was ever aware. Most of all she protected me from myself.

Author's notes: R&R please.


	2. Kain's first meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own Legacy of Kain, only the girl in this story.

Chapter 1

There are many things a young vampire must look out for and there are many things that he or she will never understand. I never fully understood what I saw the first night that I came out from my crypt in Coorhagen. It was one of the briefest meetings I have ever managed to sustain without killing that person later on. I was weak from hunger and exhaustion when I emerged from my tomb. I thought what I saw was an illusion. I had felt a quick brisk wind on my back and the sudden clap as if leather had been hit against stone. It was quick despite all this and it was only because of my newly awakened inhuman senses that I caught that sound. I turned slowly, almost stumbling out of sheer hunger. I caught a glimpse of the cemetery gate and moved with slow jerking movements towards it. I wanted to get out of there with all the will my starving mind could muster.

It was then out of the corner of my eye that I caught a movement. I thought no other living thing would be in this place of death…let alone at night, and unarmed. She was up on the wall staring down at me. I could smell her blood and my hunger almost consumed me into jumping at her. She was wearing a long black leather coat which slapped against the wall. I couldn't see much of her, she was well hidden and her hair hid her face from view. Her skin glowed softly in the moonlight that hit her and by its pale hue I could tell that she was like me.

Upon thinking about that I realized that she was probably hungry and older than me. I did not know which of these two evils I was worried about more. If she was just hungry I would easily be able to take her on…even as a vampire, women were slightly weaker than men. But if she was older…I shook in spite of myself. She stood as she watched me I still couldn't see much of her but her eyes glowed faintly of a pale blue colour. I stood straight and stared back at her finding myself put out at only seeing two blue orbs apparently floating in mid-air. "I do not mean you harm vampire!" she called out her voice soft, caressing me as if she were there at my side. I smiled up at her.

"Lady if you meant me no harm you would come here and show yourself." I heard her laugh then. Soft, smooth and again it seemed to brush against my skin.

"I do not trust hungry fledglings, vampire." I could not help myself and I growled at her. She did nothing but lifts her arms from her sides and crossed then over her chest. "You should respect your elders Kain." I was taken aback.

"How do you know me?"

"I know _of _you vampire." There was a faint rustled behind the two of us and I turned to look at the source of the noise. I then heard the beating of powerful large wings and frowned.

"What creature could that be?" I asked her with barely a thought suddenly very conscious that I needed to hear her voice. I turned to her, "It sounded…" but I was talking to myself. She was gone and I hadn't even sensed her moving. Now that I thought about it had I ever felt her presence in the first place? It was as if she had never been there at all. I felt a longing the moment I realized she had left. She represented something too me, that I would later learn was power without corruption. I had known her only for a few brief moments but I missed her as if she were a dear friend. My first meeting with her ended without me even knowing her name, I soon forgot her and our meeting.

It was almost 200 years later when I saw her next. I had been revived and had somehow found my way to sanctuary and heard of Umah's capture. It had shocked me but I was willing to go and rescue her. I was preparing myself to go when I heard a sound much like the first time. I turned with very little memory of her and annoyed at being disturbed. I held my new coat of red and black silk out in front of me trying not to turn my head. "I heard no one knock." I said to whom ever had entered, my voice full of cold annoyance.

"There is no need for me too knock on any door vampire." Her voice was almost as quite as Umah's whisper had been to those next to me. Her voice was gentle against my skin again and out of all the people I encountered in that life time I remembered her quickest. I had not yet even seen her face truly but I could remember her voice, remember the coldness of hunger and the sharp pang of lowliness. I decided that after this meeting I would at least have her name.

"Well it has been a long time has it not?" I ask pulling on my undershirt as I turned to look at her. She did not speak and still her face was hidden from view. Her hair was as jet black as the night but when she moved or the light hit her it became like a ravens feather, so many pale hued colours that it made you want to touch her…see if she was real. The tips of her hair and fringe were as white as my hair. It fell about her straight but as fluid as water. Her hair held a center parting and the fringe was more like bangs hanging across her eyes, which I could see were closed. Her skin was as pale as milk and she seemed to glow, an unnatural and probably unwanted talent when you hunted in the dark. She was slim, very much so almost a wraith in her looks but she had some muscles on her. Her cheek bones were high and her nose slender but perfect. I could tell that she had never broken a bone before. Her lips were a deep dark red, almost black as she smiled at me. They were perfect as well. Slender and thin nothing like those childish women back at home who I had taken only for the pleasure of it. I thought for a moment that perhaps she was wearing lipstick her lips were such a stark contrast to her skin. But how could it be that way she didn't seem to have anything unnatural to herself on her body at all. Her fangs were smaller than mine but there was a second even smaller pair against her primary pair. A trait I had never seen before in another vampire. Her ears were not as pointed as mine and were only a little changed in her time. By the look of her she was young, but by the colour of her skin, the smell that clung to her and the way she carried herself she was old…maybe even ancient.

She wore tight leather trousers tucked into knee high black boots. On the boots where a deadly heel, made to a sharp point I had no illusions that her kicks would finish you off if she so wished it. Across her midriff she had two belts of thick brown leather lashed at cross angles with a small piece of sinew. Each buckle was intricately decorated, one with a dragon and the other a tall angel presenting a light to the onlooker. Attached to both of these were two sturdy but slim curved swords. They were shaped strangely first going straight and then easing themselves into a gentle slope towards her calves. Across each belt were small silver throwing daggers and vials of blood. On her left side was a strange whip lashed as if it would come alive any second and try to kill the owner's enemy. The under top she wore was of a pale blue almost white silk, cut with no sleeves and a high collar. Over this she wore a corset of black and red which was lined with rivets. She held her long leather coat over one arm. She wore gloves as well. They were jet black and almost went up to her shoulders. Upon her knuckles the colour went back to the pale blue and then the gloves went fingerless. I could not help but wonder at her. She was better dressed than most of the women I had met.

Casually she tossed her coat over the back of a nearby chair and opened her eyes to me. They were of no colour at all and then every one. It confused me for a second so that I stepped back and away from her. "You are right Kain…it has been a very long time." As if she sensed my uneasy she smiled and closed her eyes. "Choose…" It was not an order it was an offer extended to me only because…I wondered why and to this day I do not understand why she asked that of me. I frowned and could not think for a moment and then remembered the vivid blue of her eyes as they glowed against the night. She seemed to read my thoughts and when I next looked at her eyes glittered with the softness of the sea on a clear day…something I had not seen for centuries. "I wish you no harm vampire." I could not help but grin at her jest. I now knew why she had called me vampire when I was younger. It was to reaffirm the fact that she knew what I was…that she did not fear me. Now she was doing it because it made me feel at ease with her.

"And I would hope you give me no reason to do the same." She nodded and smiled at me.

"You look so different…you have grown well." She rested her arms across her chest and studied me. It was not the admiring gazes of most women…and I hated to admit it but men too, it was as if she was making sure I could live through this…if I was strong enough. I stood up a little taller unconsciously and finally managed to catch myself in the act. She smiled then and it was one of pure approval. "Vorador was right you have grown strong." I suddenly had that same dull longing return to me. It was as if she was an elixir that would bring me something. I wanted it so much. She seemed to sense this and approached, still looking at me more as if I was an animal at market than a noble. It made me mad that she treated me like this; I was the great Kain after all…soon to be ruler of Nosgoth. It also made me wonder what I had done to her for her to be so different. I must have looked confused as she suddenly stopped. "I wonder if you will make it out alive."

"I will," my defiance made me feel like a child fighting against his mother, everyone I had met said the same thing. "Do you wish to test my skills yourself?" This time her laugh was cold and empty.

"Kain if I wished it I could kill you now. But it is not my place to deal with the Sarafan, and they have become a nuisance near my home." She seemed tired and rubbed her temples with slender white nailed fingers. She turned her eyes on me and I could see that she was lying about something.

She shrugged angrily and reached out for my shoulders and I instinctively backed off. She turned over her hands and splayed them in a show of passivity. "I wont hurt you…can't you remember how to put your clothes on properly?" I looked down at myself. It was true that while I had been watching her I had put my clothing on wrong. I had even torn a sleeve in my growing rage at her casual brush off. I stood still and allowed her to sort me out. She was swift but gentle in her workings and soon had me sorted. Things had changed much since I was a noble in my family's house. She seemed very interested in getting things done quickly and without much fuss. She nodded slightly and sighed. "Not the best but you'll do…I do wish they would change the colour scheme around here." I quickly looked down at myself.

"I think this is fine." I replied lifting my head after looking over myself. She caught my chin with her fingers and held me in a firm grip.

"If only we didn't have to hide…you would pass for a true noble." She shook her head and let go. Her sadness made me feel even angrier at the damn Sarafan Lord.

"I will fix it so that we can walk among the living in peace." She smiled then, but it was only half a smile, and a sad one.

"If you do not leave now she will die. We need her information and leadership in these times." She shrugged again then pushed me towards the door. "Go now and do not get yourself killed…please." I laughed and let my self move as her hands left my back.

"I think you will find that quite difficult…" I frowned and started to turn, "what is your name?" She was gone again, and still I did not know here name.

Our final meeting of that lifetime was something I will never forget easily. I had defeated my nemesis; he lay dead at the crumbling centre of his Hylden gate. I had killed Umah for her betrayal and I had destroyed the greatest threat to my ascension to power. Vorador could be dead right now and Janos had sacrificed himself to seal the gate. I felt no loss for these vampires, they meant nothing to me. Somehow I knew though that this would not be the last I saw of Vorador. I walked tall and proud though I felt the loss of Umah keenly. In my heart I wondered what it would have been like had she not betrayed me. What would have happened had I gave her the privilege of my blood?

The buildings behind me burnt with a white hot intensity close to the sun which I could no longer look at. I did not dare turn back, as a vampire my eyes would be burnt just to catch sight of it. I waited until the worst of the explosion had died down and finally turned to look at my handy work. The city was crippled now, the few humans that had survived the blast where running across the bridge past me crying out in awkward voices, looking for those they loved. I frowned after them; they reminded me of rats scurrying away from the wrecked ship. At least for once they had sense.

I started my walk down the long bridge again with my eyes cast down. I had no idea how to create my armies again and I wondered how to make a vampire fledgling. Vorador had never told me how to do such a task and my mind could not even manage to think up a way to do such a thing. All I could do was make guesses and sometimes even those left me wanting answers. I started to hope that Vorador had survived the blast and would be able to explain himself. No I would never stoop that low. He had made it painfully clear to me at the beginning that I was only an ally until he got what he wanted…the destruction of the Sarafan. Right now I had more enemies to deal with than before. Umah was right; I would have to take out a lot of vampires to make sure that I could keep my throne, if I got it. I would draw my army only from those that would be faithful to me always…and they where very few at the present moment.

"You have done well Kain!" a voice I recognized came from just a head of me. Vorador it seemed had survived. He stood in front of me, partially blocking my path. "Now all of us are free again." His voice was tinged with anger and sadness. I knew somehow what was coming next. Umah had been his favorite and I had killed her. There where going to be words, not all too pleasant ones for my guess. "You may ask one thing of me Kain before I leave."

"Tell me how to make other vampires Vorador." I said wanting to get it over with before the harsh curses started to fly.

"I will not impair on you that information so easily."

"Why not, would it be easier if there was another who knew how to create others? It would take a great weight off of your shoulders." Vorador could see through my ploy but without a descent reason he knew I would not leave without answers. I could hear the cogs turning inside of his head as he tried to think up a descent excuse. I knew what he would use against me and unfortunately I had no comeback to it.

"If you treat all your childer as you have treated Umah there would be no reason for you to sire anyone, so I will not tell you."

"You will tell him Vorador." I heard her voice again before I caught a glimpse of her. She was close to me, at my right hand side her right arm holding the left one behind her at the shoulder. The look on her face was melancholy and sad. Why was she still this way if I had removed the threat to her home? Her eyes stared straight into mine and I thought I saw a lingering pain hanging there. "At my request you will tell him." Vorador's eyes betrayed his anger and discontent at her and his claws clenched into fists. He made no move to attack her though. If I had been younger I would have thought that Vorador was not going to attack her because he was wounded, what I knew was that she had a higher 'rank' than him in vampire society. She smiled but it was sad. "He will need the information. He starts his own soon." The two older creatures exchanged glances and I could feel a wave of power swell around me. Though Vorador was exerting all of his will she was barley even trying. "I'll leave you two to talk for a while."

She returned after I had found out that creating another vampire was out of my reach for at least another century or two. Vorador had left with a fledgling and I had been left on my own to ponder what to do now. I walked away from the wharfs and came to stand in a clearing of trees. She stood there looking out over a lake that sat across from the two of us. She turned at my approach her eyes where rimmed red slightly but she seemed composed.

"Kain..."she whispered.

"He told me as you asked of him." She smiled at me.

"I believe that you have a request of me."

Author's notes: ok this story is being re-written for the fact that no one has reviewed. I am happy if you give me ideas I will use them eventually but probably not at this moment but a bit later.


	3. To save a life

Author's notes: Ok first ever chapter of 2006 so please be gentle with it. All of my stories are being re-written and new chapter will be placed up as and when a review is submitted. It can be from anyone about anything as long as I get one (oh dear god pandering for votes)

Disclaimer: I only own the woman in this story….the rest belongs to whomever it belongs to.

Chapter 2

It had taken time for me to arrange to create fledglings. I had wanted to move quicker and see if I could create them sooner, being different from the rest of my kind. Of course all the attempts at doing so failed. The chosen one died or went insane with grief and met the morning sun before I had a chance to stop them. I cursed the sun and my apparent inability to create something that seemed so simple to Vorador. I hated him and realized why he had been reluctant to tell me how to create in the first place.

It is a very different thing to create a fledgling and to actually keep it alive. I also knew that by experimenting to see if I could keep a fledgling alive was weakening both my self and the people I sired. I could tell that my body was slowly draining itself and I was barely 500. I hadn't gone into an evolutionary stupor for 250 year and I was starting to know about it. I felt weak and instead of causing my prey to feel happy when I bit them it pained them to the point of awakening others in the area. I still had yet to meet my female friend. I had made my request to her almost as long ago as my last evolution sleep. She had promised to return to me when the time for me to raise a true fledgling would be right.

I stumbled out of the nearby town and collapsed on the rocky outcrop that was nearby. In this town it had not been the humans who had driven me out but the vampire who knew me for what I was. They hated and loathed me…seeing me as a monstrosity and not another vampire. I had yet to feed this night and could feel the hunger coming across me in waves. I knew though that to hunt here would surely mean my death for there where others making sure that I harmed none of their herd. It seemed Vorador had put the word out that I were to be killed if I caused trouble. It seemed he still had no liking for me.

I knew that no one would help me feed and that I needed to find some form of sustenance before dawn or whatever life sustained me would leave me to be a rotting corpse. I often wondered if it would not just be easier for me to do that instead of living this awful half existence. But tonight the thought had not crossed my mind, my thoughts where centered on the food that I would need…on survival.

I stumbled around the corner finding nothing worthy of note or of feeding on. I was tired and a stream lay ahead of me. Its babbling would have been soothing had it not reminded me of the life blood I so lacked at this moment. I fell to me hands and knees feeling ever muscle in my body burn and boil as if there was holy water instead of blood. Crawling was all I could manage at this moment and I was distantly aware of another presence nearby, another vampire maybe?

I crawled along slowly, painstakingly towards that force. I needed its life force to sustain me, and I would take it by force, ripping it from its owners shell. Unless it was more powerful than me, but the hunger does funny things to one so weak. It causes you to go into frenzy until you are satiated. I knew I was getting close to this point and needed what ever I could get hold of.

My body muscles tightened and the threshold had been breached. My hunger consumed me and with it the frenzy. I was up onto me feet in mere seconds, moving too fast for even another of my kind that was unaware to register. My mind had a thought that was disjointed from my mood and it caused me to check my step. If it was older than me I was in great trouble. My body did not care, it needed the food source.

I took a running jump at the creature, seeing its black hair and sensing its true power only a moment later. I spread my claws and tried to catch the shoulders before it turned at my own exposed throat. But alas my luck had well and truly run out. It was an elder like me…but with more power and less weakness. He caught my shoulders with a force that would have crushed me if I was merely human. He only managed to catch my hands but I felt rather than heard my bones crack as he dislocated both my wrists. It hurt but not nearly as much as what followed, he was reaching for my ripped shirt and trying to tear it from my body. I struggled with the pain of my hands and tried to claw myself out from beneath his weight. Unfortunately the frenzy was fading and with it my life. I'd become too used to breathing and I found myself suddenly suffocating. I found it a strange sensation that forced the fog of death from my mind. I kicked and writhed trying to throw the man off me but everything I tried resolved in more bones clacking in and out of place. It was an agony I had no idea what to do with it.

A noise from the bushes next to me caused me to let out a primal shriek. All I could think of is that there where more coming to help this one. I was done for and all I could do was roaring my defiance at them. It was pitiful but I could do nothing. Suddenly his entire body was lifted from me with the strength of someone even older than him. I thought that who ever it was had just jumped him and them where rolling in the dust to my left, but as I lifted my head to where two people should have been there was just one. He stood and extended claws to whoever was on my right. "He's mine Fledgling." He managed to growl through fully extended fangs that made him look more bestial than human. I took this chance to scuttle backward out of the way and so I could just see the two fighters.

"No creature…he is not yours." In my dimly primal state of mind I could remember the woman who had made me a promise. I tried to look up at her but it didn't work…I had blood in my eyes and was fast fading from this life. "In fact I think you are mine." She launched herself of tense legs and arched over me hitting the other vampire in the chest and sending him flying. It was all moving so slowly, though I knew that if I was in a fit state I would not have seen that move coming. Again I felt him stretch his power out to her and she replied, flexing a little more than she did with Vorador but still only a minor amount. The creature recoiled from her in fear.

Even I, with my life force slipping away from me, oozing into the ground; I had to smile at this. You were a fool if you could not see, feel or register her power, that raw power that was inside her. She had his head at an angle that seemed most unnatural. The slurping sounds of feeding echoed in my head and I found myself crawling towards her.

"Stay where you are vampire." She intoned lifting her head from her meal. Her lips glittered red in the light of false dawn and I knew that there was not much time left…I would die soon. She dropped the body as close to me as she dared and I fell upon it like a ravenous dog.

The sweet coppery taste of blood filled my mouth and satiated any thirst I had. It healed my wounds and cleansed my body of some of the corruption I had in turn forced upon myself. Such power in the blood of an elder… I looked up at her through a haze of red and could understand now why she stayed her distance. I was still hungry and the power in this creature had healed me…but still I wanted more. If the blood of this elder could do such wondrous things what would her blood….the blood of an ancient be able to do to me? I could only imagine.

She watched me finish my feasting in silence holding her arms crossed over her chest. I'd finished and drained the body dry though I still felt the need for more. I watched her as a predator watches prey knowing that this one might be the end of me if I attacked at all. She nodded her consent and I stood to approach her.

"How long have you been like this?" Her voice was soft, like silk across my skin.

"Only this night,"

"I meant like a ravenous dog and not a vampire, an elder with no evolution?" I watched her carefully. Apparently she had not expected me to be so far gone.

"I could say the same of you. You have no visible evolution to you either. I would say you are older and more powerful than Vorador yet there is no sign of it at all." She smiled and pointed lightly at the air. It darkened visibly and the feint hint of dawn disappeared.

"You do not need to have physical body changes to have evolved." She sighed and moved around me, "But you…I can not sense any change in you. Not since we last met."

She was monitoring me as you monitor a horse from Market. It annoyed me but I stayed still, not wanting to spoil my chances of getting at her blood. I could feel the elder's blood rushing through my veins and knew that I would have no need for evolution soon. She smiled at me and waved over at the corpse. "You're going to regret that soon." She then pointed to her self, "And my blood mixed with his would probably kill you." She grinned evilly and the winked at me. "Of course before I help you do anything we are going to have to wait out a day or two."

"Why is…" I collapsed and felt my body be wracked by pain. I couldn't see or breath and I felt a scream be ripped from my throat.

"You see he is going to give you all you need."

Author's notes: Ok short chapter with nothing better to do than give me a way to reintroduce my girl back into story. Sad huh? Anyway will put up other chapter when I get one review.


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